There are no applications related to this application filed in this or any foreign country.
It is commonly the case that cooler chests mix food and ice within an enclosure. This results in the temperature of the food being reduced, and promotes heat transfer from the food to the ice. A few cooler chests, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,671,611, issued Sep. 30, 1997 to Gene Kirk Quigley, have disclosed a separate food compartment within the cooler chest. Similarly, another strategy is to enclose the ice in a container; some such ice containers are refreezable.
In spite of such developments, a problem still exists in adding ice to coolers having separate ice and food areas. Ice cubes tend to melt somewhat prior to being loaded into a cooler, and then tends to refreeze into larger masses. Such masses may be difficult to squeeze into an area designated for ice storage. As a result, regions within the ice storage areas may not fully filled with ice, and the cooling ability of the cooler chest is degraded.
Additionally, heat transfer from the food storage area to the ice storage area is often impeded by structures which provide unintentional insulation. Similarly, heat flow into the cold ice water formed from melting ice is often reduced due to lack of a direct thermal passage between the food storage area and the cold ice water.
And further, the food storage area may be difficult to access, due in part to interference with structures forming the ice storage area, or due to the need to move ice to access the food compartment.
What is needed is a cooler chest with an ice-surrounded food compartment that provides easy access to the ice storage ares, whereby ice may be conveniently added in a manner that allows some compound chunks of multiple ice cubes to be easily added. The cooler chest must also provide thermal conductivity between the ice storage areas and food storage areas. Similarly, there should be thermal conductivity between the melted ice water and the food storage area. The food and ice storage areas should both be easily accessed.
The present invention is directed to an apparatus that satisfies the above needs. A novel cooler chest includes an outer container that encloses a food-carrying inner container. The cooler allows easy access to the ice storage areas defined between the inner and outer containers, and easy access to the food storage area. The cooler chest provides thermal conductivity between the ice storage areas and food storage areas, and between the melted ice water and the food storage area.
The cooler chest with ice-surrounded food compartment of the present invention provides some or all of the following structures.
(A) An outer container 20 includes a body having a base 27 and sidewalls formed of curved outer and inner surfaces 21, 22 between which is carried an insulation layer 26. Handle surfaces 23 are defined on the outer surface. An ice storage area 102 is defined between the curved inner surface 22 and outer sidewall surface 61 of the inner container 60. Access to the ice storage area is improved by the direction of curve of the inner surface 21, which flares outwardly form an ice entry passage 100 for the loading of ice. A perimeter rim 24 defining a notch 25 engages the outer lid 40. A recessed region 28 defined in the base supports and secures the inner container. Ice water troughs 31, optionally defined in the base, allow water produced by the melting ice to circulate in contact with the base of the inner container.
(B) The outer lid 40 defines a sloping sidewall 43 having a perimeter rim 41 and tongue 42 which engage the perimeter rim and notch of the outer container 20. A handle surface 44 is defined on the sloping sidewall, allowing convenient removal of the outer lid. The flat top 45 and sloping sidewalls 43 are filled with an insulating material 46, which reduces heat conduction into the outer container.
(C) An inner container 60 is carried entirely within the outer container 20. In use, a portion of the base 66 of the inner container is inserted into the recessed region 28 defined in the base 27 of the outer container 20. The inner container is thermally conductive between its outer and inner surfaces 61, 62, allowing heat to be transferred from items of food stored within the inner container to ice and cold water carried within the ice storage area 102 defined between the outer and inner containers 20, 60. A handle surface 63 is defined on the outer surface, and allows the inner container to be easily removed form the outer container and carried. A perimeter rim 64 defines a notch 65 that engages the inner lid.
(D) An inner lid 80 is sized to seal the inner container 60. A perimeter rim 81 and tongue 82 engage the perimeter rim 64 and notch 65 of the inner container 60. A sloping sidewall 83 defines a handle surface 84 that allows easy removal of the inner lid. A flat top portion 85 of the inner lid may optionally support four feet 86. The feet support the inner surface 47 of the outer lid, thereby reducing the area over which the outer lid must span unsupported.
It is therefore a primary advantage of the present invention to provide a novel cooler chest with ice-surrounding food compartment that separates ice and food, each with separate compartments.
Another advantage of the present invention is to provide a cooler chest with ice-surrounding food compartment wherein the outer container has a curved sidewall, particularly wherein an upper rim of the curved sidewall flairs outwardly, thereby allowing the more convenient loading of ice into an ice storage area defined between the inner and outer containers.
A still further advantage of the present invention is to provide a cooler chest with ice-surrounding food compartment, wherein the base of the outer container defines a recessed region, whereby a portion of the base of the inner container may be located within the recessed region thereby holding the inner container in place, and optionally the base of the outer container may define ice water troughs, whereby water melted from the ice may circulate in contact with the base of the inner container.
Other objectives, advantages and novel features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the specification and the accompanying drawings.